Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Nats blow it again.

The Nats blow it again. Strasburg has one bad pitch in the second that yields a home run. Then he is flawless for the next six innings.

This from the Post:

Strasburg committed one mistake in eight luminous innings, dragging his teammates toward an opportunity to snap their skid. They kicked and screamed in a 4-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, another in a string of daily nadirs, an expansion of their capacity for dispiriting defeats. Fans fled Nationals Park during a three-run ninth-inning implosion. The ones who stayed witnessed a blown call that cost the Nationals a chance to come back.

He gave them 12 strikeouts and allowed one run in eight innings. His offense kneecapped him, allowing left-hander Francisco Liriano to flirt with a no-hit bid.

How does the offense respond during that time? Well it doesn't. Relievers give up addition runs per usual. Only scoring by Nats comes in the bottom of the 9th. Werth homers and scores two. But that's it.

Some help for the loss also went to poor umpiring in the 9th. More from the Post:

Span bounced to second baseman Neil Walker. He fielded the ball and lunged to tag Ramos on his way to second. Second base umpire Laz Diaz pointed at Ramos — a tag. Walker flipped to first — the game.

Or was it?

“Nope,” Ramos said. “Not even close. He told me, ‘He tagged you. I didn’t hear it, but I saw it.’ I said, ‘You didn’t see anything.’ Not even close. Maybe he want to go home.”

But that's the way things have been going this season for the Nationals. This is the sixth straight loss. They stand nine games behind Atlanta. It remains to be seen if they can stop their race to the bottom. So far they haven't shown that they can.